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A Redruth man was walking his dog along Portreath Cliffs on Friday when he saw a big round shape sticking out of a sewage pipe. He went down to investigate and found that it was a giant turtle’s head poking out the sewer! He managed to get a quick photo before it shot back inside.

David Dungger of Number 2 Brown Lane – Redruth was amazed to see the turtle’s head, he said, “I was walking along the cliff, just past the nudist beach, when I looked down towards sewage point. I saw a gigantic round object poking from the sewer. I quickly got my phone from my pocket and scrambled down the cliff. I couldn’t believe it when I saw a giant Turtle’s head poking out the hole. When I got home, I had a look on Google, and it turns out you can get Logger Head Turtles down here this time of year, as they migrate into warmer waters for the winter! It was funny really; the bugger kept poking his head in and out the hole; making it tricky for me to take a picture! I think there was a lot of built-up gas from the sewer as every now and then you could hear a high-pitched sound of gas escaping from the hole, similar to the noise a deflating balloon makes! It was a hell of a smelly down there as well, as it’s the main sewage outlet for Redruth!”

We spoke to a local marine biologist who says it’s very rare to get a turtle’s head poking out of the pipe like that, but it does happen! Often the Turtle’s head will poke in and out the hole because it is too scared to dive into to the water, but when it finally let’s go; it shoots out like a rocket, releasing all the built-up waste behind it!

Professor Lillicrap says if anyone experiences this rare occurrence of “turtle head” they should follow through and call the Marine Biology Centre in Skinners Bottom Redruth, who will come down and de-lodge the turtle from the pipe, although sometimes the only way to flush them out is by reaching in and breaking it’s neck!